People ToolsA Blog By Alan C. Fox
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Alan C. FoxAuthor. Entrepreneur. Game-changer.
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Alan C. Fox

Executing Your Investment Babies

by Alan C. Fox 0 Comments

 

I like investments because they work for me while I sleep.  They also work for me while I vacation on a beach in Hawaii.

The difficulty, of course, is finding a profitable investment.

Basically you invest in either a company or a person.  Either way, an investment should have three key attributes:

  1. An innovative idea.
  2. A ripe market.
  3. Great execution.

IDEA

While a good idea is important, the idea alone is not enough to guarantee a profitable return.

I used to invest in projects based solely on the idea.  I spent almost $1,000,000 producing a movie in the early 80’s.  The idea was . . . well, the title was Party Animal.  If you’re male and under 20 you might enjoy it.  I didn’t care for the execution of the idea, and lost a lot of money.

I invested more than $1,000,000 in a product called “Smart Pill.”  This is a capsule which is swallowed then progresses through the gut to diagnose certain intestinal conditions.  A great idea.  Unfortunately the CEO was inexperienced in financing, and I was left with a substantial income tax deduction when my entire investment disappeared.

A good idea alone is not enough.

MARKET

When you evaluate any investment, make sure there’s a strong market (present and future) for the product or service.

I have read that when the telephone was invented a prototype was presented to the mayor of Chicago.

“This is a wonderful invention,” he said.  “I can foresee the day when every city will have one.”

You might remember that years ago FedEx initiated an amazing service.  You could bring a document to your local FedEx office.  They would fax your document from that office to their office near the recipient, and then deliver the faxed document.  Wow!  But that service lasted less than one year.  Their cost-conscious clients soon bought their own fax machines (remember that slick paper?) and faxed directly to each other.  The market for the FedEx innovation vanished.

EXECUTION

I have been asked over the years to help other entrepreneurs get started.  I like to do this.  I have revealed my forms and operating procedures to potential competitors.

I am happy to share this information because I realize that the idea itself, while important, is not the primary driver behind success.  The operating procedures that I and my staff have worked out over the years are also important.  But the procedure, “Collect all rents strictly on time and collect a late fee if the rent is paid after the grace period expires” is just a guide.

In real estate the three most important factors are “location, location, and location.”  In business the three most important factors are “execution, execution, and execution.”

On the internet you can easily find all of the lyrics to the song, “Over the Rainbow.”  But have you ever heard that song sung off-key and with a scratchy voice?  Perhaps it should be sung by Judy Garland.

The first successful computer spreadsheet was VisiCalc, introduced in 1979.  I’ll bet you don’t even know what computer first used it.  And VisiCalc has been completely overtaken by competitors.  It isn’t around today. 

Let’s abandon our fantasies about investing in the next great idea, or the next great market, and focus on all three factors – idea, market, and execution, both at the office and at home. Your investments should prosper, and so should you.

Alan

P.S.  I love food.  My wife doesn’t like to shop for groceries or cook.  She says, “That’s what restaurants are for.”  Who am I to argue with her?

 

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Six Lessons from My Father’s 100th Birthday Party

by Alan C. Fox 4 Comments

 

I just returned from my father’s 100th birthday celebration at the Sheraton Universal City.  In 1914 Dad was born into a working class family near New York City.  When he was in high school the Great Depression hit, so he learned to play the French Horn, practicing more than three hours a day, to escape from poverty and earn a decent living.

In a recent video interview with Dad, my son Craig noted that Dad is one of the best brass instrument teachers in the world.  (His book, Essentials of Brass Playing, was published in 1982 and is still sold on Amazon.)

“No!” said Dad.  “I am the best.” 

Very few of my father’s hundreds, or thousands, of students over the past seventy years would dispute that claim.  When the Fred Fox University of Arizona Graduate Wind Quintet rehearsed at his home yesterday I asked Dad if he would please not take over the rehearsal.

“Certainly,” he said.

I arrived forty minutes after they began.  My father, from his chair, had taken over the rehearsal.

“They were all asleep,” he said.  “Now they’re awake.  They’re playing well.” 

Dad always recommends, in no uncertain terms, that everyone pay attention and perform at his or her best all of the time, to squeeze the most out of life.  I suspect that these five outstanding young musicians will tell their tale of yesterday’s lesson with Fred Fox to their friends and students fifty years from now.

One student from 1952 spoke at the party and said, “I had one lesson with Fred.  It changed my life.” 

Another student, who is still enjoying a long and successful career, flew in all the way from New Zealand to attend the party and participate in a short concert for Dad.

A third student, who retired twenty-three years ago after playing with a major symphony orchestra “took his lips out of mothballs” to perform today.

I always look for lessons in each experience, to improve my own life and to share with others. Lessons from today?

  1. Keep your mind active.  Each time I visit Dad he is happy to impart his views on everything.  After the party ended I overheard Dad giving a short French Horn lesson to one of the guests.
  2. Do your very best.  Always.  In my family this notion is seldom mentioned, just assumed.
  3. Keep moving forward.  Dad told me a few years ago that he had figured out a new French Horn technique by listening to a CD of an Austrian French Horn player.  “I wish I had known that when I was playing,” he said.
  4. Tame your negative emotions.  On Saturday Dad drove for an hour and a half to find a hotel to see his ninety-six year old sister.  The hotel was difficult to find, so he returned home—as fresh and happy as when he started.
  5. Be Feisty.  When he was ninety-five Dad underwent open heart surgery.  He was out of intensive care three or four days before the average sixty-year-old.  At the heart rehab facility one week later, compelled to use a walker, Dad strolled the corridors holding the walker high above his head. They sent him home early.
  6. It pays to have good genes.  I asked my dad to mark March 5, 2040 on his calendar because I expected him to attend my own 100th birthday on that date.

My personal philosophy, which permeates everything I write, is this:  We only have today.  It’s up to each of us to make the most of it.

Thanks, Dad.

Alan

 

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Patterns Persist Because We Are Creatures of Habit

by Alan C. Fox 2 Comments

 

Whenever I visit a buffet restaurant I eat more than I had intended. This was true when I was twelve years old. It remains true today, and I’m now seventy-four.

Patterns persist.

When I hired Karen five years ago to be my assistant her references were outstanding. She was extremely personable at her interview and earned a very high score on our thirty-question logic test. There was only one item on her resume which concerned me.

“Karen, you’ve held a number of previous positions, but you have never stayed at any job for more than eighteen months. If I hire you, why should I believe that you will stay with me for more than a year and a half?”

The more things change, the more they remain the same.
—Alphonse Karr, Les Guépes

I don’t recall Karen’s answer but I did hire her, ignoring my own conviction that patterns persist. Did she stay with me for even a year and a half? Nope. After five months her ideal job came along and it was “adios” for Karen.

Patterns Persist. Persistent patterns persist persistently.

In 1991 my wife and I traveled to Hawaii to see a total eclipse of the sun. We stayed for a week at what was then the Hyatt hotel on the Kona coast. We found that the entire staff, from reception desk to bus boy, was extremely friendly and helpful. That same pattern has persisted in every Hyatt hotel we have stayed at since. Yes, patterns persist for organizations as well as individuals. A Big Mac tastes the same in San Diego or St. Louis or even Moscow.  That is why we trust (or dislike) MacDonald’s.

When you try a restaurant for the first time and are met with poor service and mediocre food, do you go back? I don’t. I assume that the pattern will persist, and I’m almost always right in this assumption.

Nothing is stronger than habit.
—Ovid, Ars Amatoria

A friend of mine, Steve, badgered me for years to invest money with him to speculate in Treasury bill futures. He was convinced he could triple my investment.  Of course, he needed my stake because he had previously lost all of his own money doing exactly the same thing. I agreed to open an account for $30,000 and split the profit or loss with Steve. It was a rousing ride, but in less than three months he lost half of my original capital. I grabbed back the $15,000 that remained, and haven’t touched the commodities market since.

What are the lessons here?

1. Recognize your own patterns and expect them to persist. If you like the pattern, embrace it. If you dislike the consequences of the pattern either avoid the area entirely (I will never speculate in the commodities market again), work around it (eat in a restaurant which has no buffet), or intentionally try to change it (use a different approach, or People Tool, than you have in the past).

2. Recognize the patterns of behavior in others. Expect those patterns to persist. On your 25th wedding anniversary your husband will probably still refuse to ask for directions when you get lost. Ask my wife.

3. Recognize the patterns of an institution or marketplace. Expect those patterns to persist. If you are interviewing for a job with a company which experiences high employee turnover, don’t expect to be with them    for very long.

Patterns Persist. Persistent patterns persist persistently.  Believe it.  Or, if you don’t believe it, you might be continuing a pattern which will continue to return the favor and disappoint you yet again.

Alan

 

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